I grew up thinking that music was just something that you read off a page. I've been practicing improvisation lately after watching your videos, and I'm amazed at how fun and satisfying it is. Thank you for sharing tips like this for beginners!
I find improvisation to be very freeing, and it helps me develop my potential at a faster rate. I'm a long time musician, but newbie at the squeeze box (literally two weeks). I'm currently building up my little "repertoire", or prospective repertoire at least, of songs I want to play on the accordion and which I think "yeah, that's reasonable, I understand this music". Examples being an early 1800s English folk song called Gallopede, the Yiddish folk song Hava Nagila, Bach's bouree in E minor (RIGHT HAND ONLY), some fairly simply (for me, on piano, theoretically) French waltzes, etc. But then when I actually practice these or attempt a handful of measures of them on accordion, I feel like a complete newbie because I am a complete newbie on the accordion! Point being - and this is what I'm really getting at - with improvisation I find it much more liberating to pick one or a few measures of a song I'm working on and just improvise around the main notes of the melody. It doesn't even have to be in the same timing or be consistent with the number of measures in the original, I just center around the "strong notes" and the predominant hand positions. Furthermore, the music that I make when I improvise in such a manner is much more appealing to the ear than to listen to me hack and trudge along with the actual piece! I find it to be more enjoyable to improvise. And then I actually go back to the piece and try to play it and it's suddenly easier. So improvising really does help you get better at playing repertoire if you improvise over what the repertoire feels like!
The great thing about improvisation is that, while you may not always have sheet music and you might not always remember repertoire, you can ALWAYS make something up! And so very often, simple improvisation sounds like a prewritten song. Even with just two chords, there's sooo much that can be done. C and G7, or C and F, either sound just fine. You can borrow two chords from well known songs... Most of "Moondance" by Van Morrison is just A minor and B minor (with minor 7ths). The chorus to "I shot the sheriff" by Bob Marley is C minor and G minor.
Heyo! I just wanted to say that this is one of the best quick lessons on music improvisation that I've seen in a while! I struggled with improv on piano and sax in my college jazz band and really wish I had this video back then! Just picked up the accordion and your lessons are extremely helpful. Thank you!
Thank you! I tried to learn jazz improvization when i was in music school (like 20 years ago))) but my teacher, although great at playing, he wasnt great at teaching, so improvisation remained a mystery to me until today - you unveiled the mystery with a 10-minute video! That is what i call great teaching, thank you very much!
That calendar cracks me up! It just seems such a silly picture to me with the random chair lurking between lavenders. Thanks for the lesson! Edit: I had to add this. The way you play here is beautiful!! I can't wait untill I'll be able to play like this!
Thanks Ronen, I often go back over your videos. This really shows how important it is to learn the chords and their voicings. I'm getting the hang of this slowly, it's helping a lot.
Brilliant! You take all of the mystique out of improvising and accompanying! I've struggled to understand even where to start, for years! And that accordion of yours is amazing!
Great! Thanks. I am very new to accordion, but a lot of your advice also applies to a lot of other instruments I play. I have always been intimidated by improvisation. Very helpful!
For sure! This applies to any instrument (I think), and probably to a lot of other aspects in life that require a boundary to be "free". Glad you enjoyed it :)
Great video, mate!! It's a very easy way to find out ways to improvise without going to hard into theory or scales, etc. Even though it's important, this shows how easy could that be!!
Thanks again my friend.was stuck with a 32 bass for couple of years.now i have picked up a fantastic 120 bass hohner verdi V,custom built commissioned job.so nice to have the room again.very different technique but starting to feel at home again.youve shared a lot of knowledge and thankyou.love and blessings to you and yours.respect.maddogdom.west cork.republic of ireland.X
Thanks for the valuable Lesson, that was very helpful. However, I still have trouble with finger choices; Even though I practice scales, arpeggios etc., whenever I try to make some improvisation, I get trouble with finger movement between notes, in the sense I really cant figure out what fingers to use, and end up getting "lost" (losing my reference on the keyboard). I search a lot on this issue and couldnt get any help, what are the rules for finger choices, if you can give some tips. Thanks
Rafa, good question. Is there a specific song or chords you're improving over? My fingers get jumbled all the time. Ideally, you always want to have fingers left over to get to where you're going, and ideally you know whether the next notes are headed UP from where you are or DOWN from where you are, so you shift your fingers accordingly (again, so you don't run out of fingers). Practicing scales helps. Triads and arpeggios help, too.
Another awesome video dude, been doing this myself the last couple days before watching this video cause i keep running out of songs when im busking (i only know 5 haha) nice to have it confirmed in on the right track :)
I grew up thinking that music was just something that you read off a page. I've been practicing improvisation lately after watching your videos, and I'm amazed at how fun and satisfying it is. Thank you for sharing tips like this for beginners!
I find improvisation to be very freeing, and it helps me develop my potential at a faster rate. I'm a long time musician, but newbie at the squeeze box (literally two weeks). I'm currently building up my little "repertoire", or prospective repertoire at least, of songs I want to play on the accordion and which I think "yeah, that's reasonable, I understand this music". Examples being an early 1800s English folk song called Gallopede, the Yiddish folk song Hava Nagila, Bach's bouree in E minor (RIGHT HAND ONLY), some fairly simply (for me, on piano, theoretically) French waltzes, etc. But then when I actually practice these or attempt a handful of measures of them on accordion, I feel like a complete newbie because I am a complete newbie on the accordion!
Point being - and this is what I'm really getting at - with improvisation I find it much more liberating to pick one or a few measures of a song I'm working on and just improvise around the main notes of the melody. It doesn't even have to be in the same timing or be consistent with the number of measures in the original, I just center around the "strong notes" and the predominant hand positions. Furthermore, the music that I make when I improvise in such a manner is much more appealing to the ear than to listen to me hack and trudge along with the actual piece! I find it to be more enjoyable to improvise. And then I actually go back to the piece and try to play it and it's suddenly easier. So improvising really does help you get better at playing repertoire if you improvise over what the repertoire feels like!
The great thing about improvisation is that, while you may not always have sheet music and you might not always remember repertoire, you can ALWAYS make something up! And so very often, simple improvisation sounds like a prewritten song.
Even with just two chords, there's sooo much that can be done. C and G7, or C and F, either sound just fine. You can borrow two chords from well known songs... Most of "Moondance" by Van Morrison is just A minor and B minor (with minor 7ths). The chorus to "I shot the sheriff" by Bob Marley is C minor and G minor.
Heyo! I just wanted to say that this is one of the best quick lessons on music improvisation that I've seen in a while! I struggled with improv on piano and sax in my college jazz band and really wish I had this video back then! Just picked up the accordion and your lessons are extremely helpful. Thank you!
I just learned so much from this video
Brilliant 😀. Thank you🙏
Thank you! I tried to learn jazz improvization when i was in music school (like 20 years ago))) but my teacher, although great at playing, he wasnt great at teaching, so improvisation remained a mystery to me until today - you unveiled the mystery with a 10-minute video! That is what i call great teaching, thank you very much!
That calendar cracks me up! It just seems such a silly picture to me with the random chair lurking between lavenders. Thanks for the lesson!
Edit: I had to add this. The way you play here is beautiful!! I can't wait untill I'll be able to play like this!
🤣
THALKE you! Brilliant!
#Thank
Thanks Ronen, I often go back over your videos. This really shows how important it is to learn the chords and their voicings. I'm getting the hang of this slowly, it's helping a lot.
Ooh, I remember this video. Glad to hear you're making progress, Adrian :)
Brilliant! You take all of the mystique out of improvising and accompanying! I've struggled to understand even where to start, for years! And that accordion of yours is amazing!
Thank you Jane 🙏
Wow, this is so amazing! Ronen, I love the way you approach to the music, the way you unveil it in front of your students. Thank you so much!!!
Great! Thanks. I am very new to accordion, but a lot of your advice also applies to a lot of other instruments I play. I have always been intimidated by improvisation. Very helpful!
For sure! This applies to any instrument (I think), and probably to a lot of other aspects in life that require a boundary to be "free".
Glad you enjoyed it :)
Thank you for the lesson! I'm a guitar player but i will try to play on a 120 Button accordion from my great grandfather!
Great video, mate!!
It's a very easy way to find out ways to improvise without going to hard into theory or scales, etc. Even though it's important, this shows how easy could that be!!
Thanks Pablo!
Super, cette vision simple pour aborder l'improvisation, j'apprécie beaucoup ;-)
I just started playing the accordion and this was really helpful!
Very useful video, I have not seen it before, thanks!
Thanks!! Happy TH-cam magic brought you to it 😉
Thanks again my friend.was stuck with a 32 bass for couple of years.now i have picked up a fantastic 120 bass hohner verdi V,custom built commissioned job.so nice to have the room again.very different technique but starting to feel at home again.youve shared a lot of knowledge and thankyou.love and blessings to you and yours.respect.maddogdom.west cork.republic of ireland.X
Thanks Dominic. Must be liberating to have the 120 bass and all the range it offers. Stay safe 🙏
Thanks for the valuable Lesson, that was very helpful. However, I still have trouble with finger choices; Even though I practice scales, arpeggios etc., whenever I try to make some improvisation, I get trouble with finger movement between notes, in the sense I really cant figure out what fingers to use, and end up getting "lost" (losing my reference on the keyboard). I search a lot on this issue and couldnt get any help, what are the rules for finger choices, if you can give some tips. Thanks
Rafa, good question. Is there a specific song or chords you're improving over? My fingers get jumbled all the time. Ideally, you always want to have fingers left over to get to where you're going, and ideally you know whether the next notes are headed UP from where you are or DOWN from where you are, so you shift your fingers accordingly (again, so you don't run out of fingers).
Practicing scales helps. Triads and arpeggios help, too.
Another awesome video dude, been doing this myself the last couple days before watching this video cause i keep running out of songs when im busking (i only know 5 haha) nice to have it confirmed in on the right track :)
Improvisation is so key to busking... choose a few chords and go to town :)
thank you very much for your video!!!!!
Very welcome Dan!
Great video, incredibly helpful. Also, could you actually do vibrato on the accordion?
I think you can... Haven't quite practiced enough
Good speech!
Thanks! Usually just teach, but this felt good to share 😊
pity that your courses are not translated into French.
pity that your courses are not translated into French. But Thanks